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Monday, September 7, 2015

Why do we Celebrate Labor Day?

Do we celebrate for just being lucky enough to have a job — any job at all?

The prominent economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz (and a Fellow of the progressive Roosevelt Institute) once said: “An economy that doesn’t deliver for most of its citizens is a failed economy.”

According to a new report from the Economic Policy
Institute: "Since 1973, hourly compensation of the vast majority of American workers has not risen in line with economy-wide productivity. In fact, hourly compensation has almost stopped rising at all."

That sounds like a failed economy: When most increases in productivity (growth/profits) since 1973 went to company executives and investors, and not shared with the workers. Do we celebrate that?

America has not been doing well in either equality of outcomes or opportunity. We have obtained the dubious distinction of being the country with the highest level of inequality of outcomes, and among the lowest levels of equality of opportunity, compared to other advanced economies ... the American dream today is to a large extent simply a myth. The life prospects of a young American are more dependent on the income and education of his or her parents than in almost any of the other advanced countries. Wages and benefits for American workers grew at the slowest pace in 33 years in the second quarter this year..."

From another recent report by the Economic Policy Institute: How the Economy Has Performed for Workers This Year

Unemployment rates remain too high overall, and far too high for African Americans, Hispanics, and young graduates.

Wages have continued their 35-year trend of broad-based stagnation.

The buying power of the minimum wage continues to erode each year that policymakers refuse to raise it.

Declining collective bargaining is harming workers’ wage prospects.

Far too many workers have to contend with unpredictable schedules and no paid leave.

New York Times: Employers Exploit Unauthorized Immigrants to Keep Wages Low: "Competition with lesser-skilled immigrants can be a problem for low-wage-earning native-born workers during a recession or a time of high unemployment." (Study:PDF)

The McKinsey Global Institute has projected that in 2020, relative to the number of available jobs, there may be a surplus of about six million workers with a high school degree and of almost one million workers without a high school degree.

A landmark study
found that 37 percent of unauthorized immigrant workers were victims of minimum wage violations. An astounding 84 percent who worked full-time were not paid time-and-a-half for overtime when they worked more than 40 hours in a week.

The bargaining power of U.S.-born workers competing in the low-wage labor market is undercut when millions of unauthorized workers cannot safely complain to the Labor Department or sue for unpaid wages.

But the GOP has been fighting labor unions since the dawn of time. Since the Powell Memo in 1971, we've seen "right to work" state laws flourish and the subsequent decline of union membership (because uninformed people often vote against their own best
interests, and the GOP wants to keep them "dumbed down".)

What reasons do we have to celebrate Labor Day during these days of stagnate and declining wages?

Do we celebrate a growing number of part-time and "on call" jobs in this new "gig" economy — where everyone will have to scramble from one job to the next to earn a living — instead of just going to a regular 40-hour-a-week job that offers paid sick days, paid holidays and vacations, good healthcare and a solvent pension plan?

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The National Labor Relations Act — enacted under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1935 — prohibits employers from retaliating against workers for engaging in “concerted” activity to improve their wages and conditions, even when they are not trying to unionize.

In an era when the traditional labor unions envisioned by Depression-era supporters of that law have weakened steadily, some advocates now see work site committees as an alternative way to strengthen workers’ clout and protections.

Many businesses readily take advantage of their immigrant employees. Marcela Diaz, the executive director of Somos Un Pueblo Unido (We are a United People), representing workers at a car wash: “A lot of workers don’t know about labor unions, and a lot are scared of retaliation if they try to form one. So we have to find ways to protect workers when there isn’t a union.”

These newfangled worker committees have been accumulating victories for wage theft and illegal firings. A lot of people thought the National Labor Relations Act could only be used during unionization campaigns, but they’re finding that the National Labor Relations Act is much more expansive than many people thought -- it protects nonunion workers, too.

But these worker committees will rarely if ever be as effective as traditional unions, which are larger and engage in collective bargaining.

An executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce complained that some immigrant worker groups were fronts for unions and were being used to help rebuild the labor movement.

If these workers could join a union, they would prefer that. But as far as protecting their own rights, these worker committees are the next best thing.

Union workers at a plant are on the job without a contract, but are threatening to strike if a deal is not reached with the new owner. The picketers cycled through several chants, including, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, the war on workers has got to go" when Bernie Sanders' car drove up. He was then handed a sign and took his place in the picket line. Sanders has marched in solidarity with aggrieved workers throughout his career in politics.

According to www.unionstats.com (a database maintained by two university professors) Iowa is one of 25 states with a right-to-work law that allows workers to be covered by a union contract without joining, according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.

Hillary is a wash on the TPP trade agreement (just like Obama and Biden) so the labor unions NEED to get behind Bernie (or their members could revolt).

Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The former AFSCME [union] president from Council Bluffs, is supporting Hillary Clinton again because she believes the former first lady has the connections and fundraising strength to beat a Republican in the general election. The next president needs to have the political clout to work with Republicans in Congress on issues like the minimum wage and improving on the Affordable Care Act, she said.

MY NOTE: But if Bernie is nominated, won't the DNC (which includes Hillary supporters) provide the connections and fundraising strength to help Bernie beat a Republican in the general election? And what political clout does Hillary have to work with the GOP in Congress? They all hate her guts!!!

President Obama is poised to sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to offer employees up to seven paid sick days a year, a move that could benefit more than 300,000 workers. [What took him so long?]

Now, U.S. federal agencies (involved in economic data) are proposing to reclassify these “wholesale traders” as “domestic manufacturers.” This means that their sales would be counted as U.S. production and their products that are made offshore and imported into the U. S. for sale would no longer be counted as imports.

Inside the Beltway, The Washington Post reported, "Cantor remains well-liked and respected in the Virginia business community and among the Republican donor class in the commonwealth." [The "donor class" is the top 0.01% — such as wealthy investors, CEOs of large companies and hedge fund managers.]

But outside the Beltway, the failed Republican revolutionary-turned-Wall Street influence-peddler is a snortle-inducing spectacle on both sides of the political aisle.

Jeb Bush and Eric Cantor share the same smug condescension toward Americans who believe in strict immigration enforcement and putting American workers first. Cantor fecklessly lied to voters during the campaign season about his position(s).

He showered his district with anti-illegal immigration flyers that fraudulently portrayed him as standing up to President Obama on amnesty. But on Capitol Hill, he championed the DREAM Act for illegal alien students, huge H-1B visa increases to quench Big Tech's appetite for cheap foreign tech workers, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce/AFL-CIO's collaboration on massive immigration expansions*.

[* Did you get that last line? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing big businesses, who are usually represented by the Republicans — and AFL-CIO, the largest labor union representing workers, who are usually represented by the Democrats. Both want more immigration for two difference reasons: The Republicans for cheap labor and large corporate campaign donations — and the Democrats for more votes — with campaign donations coming from union dues. Immigrants are more like to join a labor union.]

"Flat or falling pay is self-reinforcing because it dampens demand and, by extension, economic growth. In the current recovery, median wages have fallen by 3 percent, after adjusting for inflation, while annual economic growth has peaked at around 2.5 percent ... Why has worker pay withered? The answer, in large part, is that rising productivity has increasingly boosted corporate profits, executive compensation and shareholder returns rather than worker pay. Chief executives, for example, now make about 300 times more than typical workers, compared with 30 times more in 1980 ... In the past year, low-wage workers have successfully fought for minimum wage increases in states and cities. Congressional Democrats have championed legislation to raise the federal minimum wage and to fight wage theft and abusive worker scheduling. The Labor Department is moving ahead with a much needed new rule to update the nation’s overtime-pay laws."

Economic Policy Institute (September 10, 2015) "Since 2000, the share of income generated by corporations going to workers’ wages declined ... Had the share remained the same over this time, labor compensation today would be high enough to give each U.S. worker a $3,770 raise."

A new labor bill was just sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) But to be clear, the Democratic proposal has approximately zero chance of going anywhere while the GOP controls both the House and Senate. And they know it. They should have passed this in 2009/2010 when the Democrats held COngress. Now it's just all talk and no action...and they know it.

Democrats Want To Make Labor Organizing Akin To A Civil Right: A proposal in Congress, backed by labor unions, would make it much riskier for employers to illegally retaliate against pro-union workers ... To be clear, the Democratic proposal has approximately zero chance of going anywhere while the GOP controls both the House and Senate.

New pro-union bill to serve as litmus test for 2016 presidential candidates: As Scott Walker bashes unions on the campaign trail, Democrats in Congress sponsor the Wage Act, offering new protections for workers seeking to unionize.

Should Hillary Clinton be indicted by Donald Trump's new AG?

Blogster-at-Large

Bud Meyers writes about the economy, politics, Social Security, corporate outsourcing, labor statistics, the REAL unemployment rate, taxes and tax evasion, government and corporate corruption, and the plight of the long-term unemployed.